The three riders, Joanna Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott, broke a world record to defeated the USA, completing the 12 laps in 3 minutes 14.051 seconds - and 5.6 seconds faster than the Americans.

The gold was the third for Team GB on “Super Saturday” – so called as there are 25 golds available in 11 sports, the busiest day of the Games so far.

Earlier in the day, at the Eton Dorney rowing lake, the men’s four – of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Peter Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory – and women’s lightweight double sculls – of Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking – won their finals.

There was also a silver in the rowing for lightweight men’s doubles sculls Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase.

The results have taken Team GB above South Korea to third in the medal table, with 11 golds and 26 medals in total.

The victory for Joanna Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott continues a remarkable run of gold medals for British cyclists, bringing the country’s fifth gold medal in the sport.

The trio were roared home in the final by a partisan crowd, once again creating an intense atmosphere at the 6,000 seat velodrome.

After the race Trott said: "I can't believe it. I'm getting dead emotional right now. It's been my dream since I was eight and we've gone and done it."

King added: "We're like sisters and I couldn't have done it without them. It's absolutely incredible. I can't believe we've done it. It's absolutely amazing."

Rowsell said: "I could tell we were winning by the noise of the crowd. They were shouting so loud it just really spurred us on in the last kilometre."

They have been dominant throughout the qualifying rounds and in the build up to the Olympics.

In the semi final this afternoon they knocked almost a second off their own world record – set yesterday in the earlier round – with a time of three minutes 14.68 seconds.

They form part of a squad of four, with Wendy Houvenaghel, 37, as reserve rider, to step up in the event of injury or loss of form.

The trio of Rowsell, King and Trott have been the preferred selection for about the last six months, with various other options tried before then.

All four have become firm friends and were allocated a three-bedroom apartment in the Olympics village, where King and Trott volunteered to share a room.

Rowsell, at 23 the oldest of the three riders, suffers from alopecia and lost her hair at the age of ten.

At the age of 16, her hair grew back – something she credited with her happiness from cycling, which she had just taken up – but six months later, she went through the trauma of losing it again. At 20, it grew back for a third time, but lasted one month.

Rowsell, from Cheam, sometimes wears a wig, but not while cycling, and at previous events where she has been successful, she has not always had time to put it on before she reaches the podium.

She has credited cycling with helping her to deal with her condition. She also met her boyfriend, Dan Shand – a former rider – through the sport.

“I decided my condition wasn’t going to hold me back. I was told I had potential. Cycling made me who I am,” she said earlier this year.

Like King, 21, from Southampton, she was picked out by British Cycling talent scouts who visited her school.

King’s father, Trevor, represented Britain in the skiing biathlon at the 1984 and 1988 winter Olympics.

Mr King, 52, said: “She has already surpassed what I have done – my highest ranking in the world was 15, so I have never got to the position that Dani has got to.”

Trott’s route into cycling was rather different to her team-mates. The 20-year-old’s introduction to the sport came after her father Adrian bought a bicycle for her mother Glenda to help her lose weight.

Mr Trott, 52, an accountant, said his wife, 50, a teaching assistant – the time a dress size 24 – was being treated for obesity and was told she needed to take up some form of exercise.

The couple from Cheshunt, Herts, decided to encourage their daughters to cycle as well, and in 2000 Mr and Mrs Trott took Laura and her sister Emma to the Welwyn Wheelers cycling club, which uses the velodrome at Gosling Sports Park in Welwyn Garden City.

Mrs Trott lost seven stone in a year as a result of her cycling, while both of her daughters took to the sport immediately.

“We all went and did a taster session and we were supposed to stand on the track with the old boys who were going to explain the bikes. But the girls had just jumped on the bikes and gone,” Mr Trott said.

Houvenaghel at 37, is 14 years older than Rowsell, the next oldest member. A dentist by profession, at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 she won silver in the women’s individual pursuit – but the event has been replaced this year by the team pursuit.

She is from Upperlands, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, but is currently based in Manchester.